Whiskers Round the Moon
by Kita the Spaz
Summary: An injured Iruka is saved from death by a most unusual pack of wolves, and discovers that the leader of the pack is something more. But the discovery may do him no good if the poison in his blood finishes what it started.


_**A/N: Sorry I've been away from this site so long. ~winces~ I've been kept really busy with real life and writing. But this means good news for you, dear readers, because it means I have a backlog of fiction to put up for those of you who don't follow me on any of the other sites I belong to. Whiskers is a really odd fic that started out as an Idea to write a werewolf fic in the Naruto Universe that does not go seriously AU. It grew. Now before the naysayers start saying "You stole the werewolf idea from so-and-so..." I want you to understand that this was written for Halloween of LAST YEAR. It's been up in my livejournal since then and I've only recently gotten around to posting it up on here. Frankly, if you track the dates on all of the other Werewolf fics, you'll find that this one predated them. ~sighs~ Sorry to sound so cranky, know that it's not directed at you guys, it's directed at certain idiots who shall forever remain nameless.**_

_**Anyways, I hope you enjoy!**_

_**Beta and Author support by the awesome Micah_n10! She is my beta goddess.  
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_Whiskers round the moon._ The chuunin smiled wearily as he thought that. It was something his mother had taught him when he was only a child. He remembered her soft, sing-song as she moved around his childhood bedroom, picking up toys and putting things away.

_"Whiskers round the moon,__  
the dark woods call you home,  
and the dawn comes soon,  
no more to wander, to roam.  
'__There is safety in my darkness,  
and sleep in my embrace,  
do not wander restless,  
come you home to your place,'  
the dark forest calls.  
'__Come you home,' Shadows croon.  
'__To my darkened wooden halls  
When there are whiskers round the moon.' "_

Iruka stared up at the misty sky through a break in the canopy, thinking he had a long way yet to go before he could rest. He was still at least three days from Konoha, probably more in his condition. If only he weren't so cold. It seemed that his breath should leave trails of mist on the air. He knew the symptoms, knew that he had lost more blood than he could afford to. He had managed to stop the bleeding, but he was weak and barely able to function. And _so_ cold.

He wondered if anyone would bother to come looking for him. He was nearly a week late from his courier mission, but a bird had already been sent to the Hokage that the papers had been delivered and signed. He thought sleepily that Naruto might come looking for him, but no, Naruto was off training with the legendary Jiraiya. He was only sorry that he wouldn't be able to say goodbye this time.

A distant howl startled him out of his shock-induced lethargy and he felt for a kunai and heaved himself to his feet, his injured leg protesting. Did the enemies have dogs? He couldn't remember, though he had a vague remembrance of teeth tearing into his side as he ran.

He found the blade as a second howl answered the first, cold steel still warmer than his fingers felt. He knew he wouldn't be a match for anyone in his current condition, but at least he would go out fighting. There was another yipping howl and a second answering it, both of these closer than the first cries.

The howls were deeper than he'd ever heard from a dog, echoing and eerie. Wolves, he realized with a shudder.

There was movement in the undergrowth and a pair of bright eyes focused on him. Iruka tightened his fingers on his kunai as the small wolf slunk from the undergrowth. It was a brindled brown with a darker muzzle and dark ears that flicked back and forth as it observed him. Still holding him with those dark eyes, the wolf tipped his head back and yowled, a high cry that was immediately answered. Iruka counted at least six replies though there could have been as many as nine. Too many to fight, especially in his condition, but he'd be damned if her was going down the gullets of a pack of wolves without giving them a fight either.

A second wolf skulked out of the shrubbery, larger than the first. This one was gray-brown, marked with darker fur on its back and the top of its head. Pale eyes transfixed him and Iruka shivered. Another slipped from the underbrush, followed by another. The smaller of the two was also brown, with deceptively sleepy eyes. The larger was a tawny color, rumbling softly with bared teeth. Iruka clutched his kunai as the biggest yet slipped between two trees, a shadow among shadows, black as the night.

His teeth were chattering now as the cold seeped into his bones and turned his muscles to jelly. He counted seven… no, eight of them, restlessly prowling around the tree his back was braced against. "Come get me," Iruka whispered. "Get it over with. You'll get me, but at least some of you will feel my fang first." He hefted the kunai as the pack stilled at his words. He heard a low growl and a ninth wolf slipped from the shadows. Dusty gray and scarred, it was obviously leader of the pack. Its single silver-pale eye froze him, the other lost to a long slash that ran down its muzzle.

"Come on, you bastard," Iruka hissed, his muscles quivering. "You've cornered your prey. Time to bring it down."

Iruka never had a chance. As the leader moved forward, a rangy red she-wolf darted in from the side and closed teeth around his wrist. Numb fingers lost their grip and the kunai dropped into the leaf litter. Iruka desperately tore his wrist free and kicked out at the small brown wolf that was suddenly far too close. Iruka saw stars as the tawny wolf was suddenly underfoot, catching his leg wraps in its teeth. He was too weak to catch his balance and went down hard, the massive black wolf planting heavy paws on his chest.

Iruka saw the flash of teeth in the black muzzle and almost welcomed the darkness that descended before they did.

It was warm. That was the first thought that floated through his fuzzy brain. He was surrounded by warmth… a warm breathing darkness. _Breathing?_ Like lightning, he was awake. He cracked an eye open, keeping his breathing steady. It took a long moment to focus in the dim light trickling in from the round mouth of a cave. He was in the middle of the pack of wolves, his head pillowed on the side of the red she-wolf. The huge black wolf was laying on his right side, his head pillowed on the flank of the tawny male that was curled up on his feet. The brown wolf and the brown brindle were on his left, the dark masked head of the smallest resting heavily on Iruka's stomach. Iruka turned his head a little, freezing as he caught the silver-pale eye of the pack leader. The wolf whuffed softly and turned his head toward cave mouth. The ash-blonde wolf and the gray stood in the cave mouth, each with a rabbit in their mouths.

Iruka shivered as he felt a warm tongue caress his ear. The red female lapped at his face and he tried not to squirm at the ticklish sensation. The gray wolf brought his catch to the one-eyed pack-leader, and Iruka couldn't stop a reflexive twitch as the silver-gray wolf gutted the rabbit neatly. The scarred head lifted and the single eye caught him again. The wolf ripped a strip of flesh from the rabbit's haunch and moved closer, the red-raw meat dangling from its jaws. Iruka recoiled from the reek of blood on the hot breath as the wolf pressed in close to his face. Warm blood dripped on his cheek, and with a start, Iruka realized that the wolf was trying to feed him like it might a cub.

Suppressing a shiver of revulsion, Iruka accepted the bloody meat from the wolf's teeth, grimacing at the sharp copper tang of the blood. He'd been forced to eat disturbing things on missions before, but this was the first time he'd ever eaten rabbit raw. With a soft huff of expelled air, the pack-leader dropped the rest of the rabbit next to the she-wolf. Iruka struggled to sit up, but was stopped by a soft growl from the pack leader. The massive black male sat up and put a warning paw on the chuunin's chest. He winced at the weight on his injured torso and decided that getting up wasn't such a good idea after all.

The rangy female began to tear bits from the rabbit and offer them to him. Iruka found himself thankful that she wasn't regurgitating meat for him. It was all he could do to force himself to eat the dripping meat. When he could stomach no more, he turned his head away, hoping that the she-wolf would get the message. She licked his face and bolted down the rest of the rabbit herself. With his stomach full and some of the fuzziness gone, Iruka wondered about the odd pack that was treating him like he was a cub. He _felt_ as weak as a cub, and he knew just how close he'd come to dying.

Lethargy dragged on his limbs and the warm fur of the wolves was soft and smelled of pine and forest. He wasn't even aware of when his eyes drifted closed and he fell into sleep. He dreamt of his mother's voice singing to him softly, as she ran gentle fingers through his hair.

He woke once, still groggy and disoriented; to find the ash-blonde licking at the wounds in his side and whining softly. He tried to push the wolf's muzzle away but his fingers were strangely heavy and sleep claimed him again.

"_I don't like it. He needs real medical attention."_

"_He'll die before he can get that far. He lost too much blood. And you can smell for yourself…"_

"_Hush, you'll wake him up. Rest and food are the best things for him now."_

"_Should one of us run to the village?"_

"_No. There is nothing that they can do for him at this point. We will have to wait it out and hope he survives."_

"_I don't like it."_

"_**You**__ don't like it? How do you think I feel?"_

"_He may not survive. Most likely, won't, as weak as he is."_

"_He has to."_

Iruka woke again; to find that he was alone in the den, save for the she-wolf who had fed him. She whined softly as he tried to push himself into a sitting position, reaching for his flask. He was thirsty, though he would have thought he'd be more dehydrated with the amount of blood he'd lost. His side screamed in protest and he gasped, glancing down at the wounds he remembered sloppily bandaging after he had gotten the bleeding to stop.

The bandages were clean and wrapped neatly around his torso. He had bandaged it right over the wad of cloth he had used to staunch the bleeding, and there was no trace of blood on the neat dressing. Someone had changed his bandages, someone with no fear of a pack of wolves.

A little unnerved, Iruka found his flask. He though he'd remembered that it was half full, but he must have used less than he thought, because it was nearly full. He tipped it back and drank more than half the contents swiftly. He'd have to try and find water when he had more strength.

The arm he was using to support himself in a sitting position started to tremble badly and Iruka knew he was taxing the little strength he did have. He started to lower himself and yelped when his arm gave out completely. Instead of hitting the hard rock, he landed on something soft that let out a soft whuff of air. He found himself looking directly into the silver-pale eye of the pack leader, who was supporting his head and shoulders on his ribs.

Iruka shivered, but decided that he had nothing to lose and tentatively stretched a shaking hand out to the wolf. He felt hot breath on his fingers for a moment and then the rasp of a damp tongue. The big male ducked his head and let Iruka scratch behind his ears. Iruka sighed, tension easing from his shoulders as he buried his fingers in the warm fur.

The pack leader made a soft sound and pushed against his fingers. Iruka scratched carefully, trying to reach all the spots the wolf wouldn't be able to reach himself. Before long, the scarred gray wolf was making contented noises. Whining softly, the female edged over and Iruka transferred one hand to her ruff. They both had their eyes closed in blissful contentment when the rest of the pack returned, bearing chunks of deer in their jaws. Iruka grimaced, knowing what was coming.

He meekly submitted to being fed like a pup, knowing that he was far too weak to do anything more and unwilling to risk fingers trying to do it himself. He vowed that as soon as he was strong enough, he was building a fire and cooking his meat, though!

As the pack settled around him, Iruka again found himself in the center of a huddle of warm bodies, and grateful for it. The late autumn nights were still fairly warm but he felt cold, a lingering effect of all the blood he'd lost. He drifted off to sleep again, his fingers buried in warm fur and wondered if Konoha would even bother to send someone to search for him.

Three days passed in the same manner before Iruka had the strength to move around the little cave with only the slightest assistance from the huge, black wolf. This time he was the one who had stayed behind while the rest of the pack was out hunting. It took a while, but Iruka managed a short trip out side the den to gather firewood. He was sick of eating raw meat. The black wolf stayed close as Iruka set up a small firepit far enough away from the den that the smell wouldn't unnerve the pack. He had found a handful of cress growing in the nearby stream. As he munched on that, reveling in the taste of sweet, crisp greens, he rinsed out his flask and refilled it.

Though he'd never caught sight of them, there had to be somebody coming in to tend to the things that a pack of wolves couldn't, because his water-skin had remained full and his bandages had been changed. He had no idea who it could be, this person who moved freely in and out of the den of a pack of wolves.

He heard the pack before they came into sight of the den, the high-pitched cries speaking of a successful hunt. Resting an arm across the shoulders of the huge black male, he limped out to meet them. The pack leader was carrying a haunch in his jaws that Iruka identified as one of the tusked boars that lived in the forests near Konoha. The gray wolf and the brown brindle both carried piglets in their jaws. Apparently they had come across a group of the wild pigs and eaten well. As he came closer, several of the wolves darted up to greet him, cavorting around him like puppies. Iruka crouched to run his fingers through soft fur, laughing as rough tongues swiped at his cheeks and hands.

He'd learned quickly that the wolves loved caresses, crowding close for their share of scratches and petting. The pack leader was one of the worst, literally crawling into his lap to get his share. Iruka obligingly gave all of them scratches as they crowded around him, though their enthusiasm threatened his increasingly shaky balance.

He accepted one of the piglets from the brindle and rose, resting his arm across the shoulders of the massive black wolf again. He limped back to his firepit, the rest of the pack bounding around him. He'd taken to talking with them to ease the silence that sometimes pressed too heavily for comfort.

"Well, you may like your meat fresh on the hoof, but I prefer mine cooked. So don't spook when I light a fire, alright? I know you have to be familiar with the smell, cause somebody's been coming in to tend me." He kept talking soothingly as he lit the small bundle of tinder and fed the tiny flame bits of wood until he had a small fire crackling merrily. The pack whined uneasily, but stayed close as he cleaned and spitted the piglet.

Noses twitched as the meat started to cook over the flames and hesitantly some of the boldest edged closer. Iruka grinned and used his kunai to carve small bits from the roasting meat and offered one to the one-eyed leader, who was looking into the flames, unnervingly still. The big male accepted the tidbit and licked his hand. That was enough for the others, who crowded closer, hoping for bits of the meat that smelled so tempting. Iruka passed out tidbits until the piglet was bare bones. He looked up at a disgusted snort and started as the haunch was dropped in his lap.

Laughing, Iruka realized that he'd tidbitted away his meal, and set the haunch to cook, feeding more wood to the flames. The pack settled around him and Iruka let himself feel content for the first time since he'd left Konoha. His mission was accomplished and he was safe and fed. He leaned back against the bulk of the wolf behind him, only a little surprised to find it was the leader of the pack. He scratched behind the pointed ears, thinking he'd miss this existence when he was well enough to go home.

The one-eyed male curled his head around to rest his chin on Iruka's thigh, his silver-blue eye meeting the chuunin's. Iruka was caught up in the depth and intensity contained in that single gaze. He had a feeling he'd seen that look before, but couldn't remember where.

It was full dark by the time the haunch had finished roasting. Iruka ate swiftly by the light of the dying fire and shared out what he hadn't been able to finish. He was dumping dirt on the coals when the one-eyed male tipped his head back to regard the waning moon. Iruka turned as an eerie croon built into a full-fledged howl. One by one, the rest of the pack echoed the howl until the night rang with their uncanny cries.

Grinning and feeling a little foolish, Iruka tilted back his own head and tried a howl of his own. It was pitiful compared to theirs, but the red she-wolf grinned and echoed him. Laughing, he tried again. Soon they were all howling with him. When they tired of the game, he rested a hand on the shoulder of the great gray and an arm across the massive shoulders of the black and walked between them back to the den. He slept well that night.

But he woke in the darkest hours of the night, after the moon had fled the sky, feeling ill and feverish. His side throbbed with fresh agony and it was all he could do to stagger out of the cave. He lost his dinner and crouched shaking in the underbrush, alternately chilled and burning.

Iruka barely had the strength to go for a kunai when suddenly, there was a gentle hand supporting his elbow. He looked up into a face cast in shadows, thought the last of the pale moonlight lit one eye a strange, pale color. "W-who…?" He croaked, the lining of his throat raw and burning.

"A friend." The voice was a whisper in the dark and those warm, strong hands supported him back into the den. He recognized the shape of the black wolf in the half-light and curled against his warm fur, shaking with fever. He heard a soft whine and identified it as the red female, pressing against his other side. A gentle hand supported his head and the cool metal of his water flask pressed against his lips. "Drink," commanded the whisper. "You have to drink, even if you don't want to. You have a terrible fever."

Shaking, Iruka obeyed, managing to sip at the water. "Not too much," cautioned the stranger, still speaking in a near-silent whisper. "Drink slowly."

Iruka did as he was told, too wracked with shivers to question who was helping him. "C-cold." He managed, curling up closer to the source of heat that was the black wolf.

"It will pass. The fever has you in its grip. You have to fight it."

"Tired…"

"I know." A gentle hand soothed his forehead. "Just stay awake a bit longer. Just a little while, and then you can rest."

Iruka fought to stay awake, drinking more water as it was pressed on him and shaking with a cold that even the warmth of the wolves crowded close around him couldn't chase away. But the person tending him was gentle and kind; and his hands were cool and soothing as he urged Iruka to drink again. "Who are you?" Iruka rasped.

"No one, now. It's been more than a year since I was last called by my name. Maybe longer. It's so easy to lose track of time anymore."

Iruka blinked heavy eyes. "What is y-your name?"

He didn't get an answer. "Drink. The fever will dehydrate you. You have to have enough fluids in you before you can sleep."

Iruka shivered and accepted another drink. "I w-was fine earlier."

"You'll be fine again. Just so long as you can fight off the fever." Even groggy and light-headed, Iruka could sense there was more to that statement.

"What? Why?"

"You are too stubborn for your own good. Always have been." A sigh gusted warm breath across Iruka's cheek and he realized dimly that his head was pillowed on folded legs. "Stone has made some dangerous leaps in certain chakra-infused poisons. It was thought that they managed to get their hands on some of the illegal research left behind by… well, it doesn't matter who. What matters is that they make a poison that's not immediately lethal. They inject it into carriers, most often dogs. The poison gets into their blood, their fur, their saliva; ready to infect a victim. You see, it's ripe with chakra and carries something very like a curse seal. Once it's in your system, all it needs is certain conditions to take effect."

Iruka blinked, struggling hard to stave off the sleep he felt dragging down his eyelids. "Conditions?"

"Blood loss, dehydration, high fever. Conditions very easy to find on a battlefield or in an injured shinobi too far from his home. All too easy to give the poison curse all it needs."

"And…" Iruka was shaking again, but this time he was sure it wasn't the fever.

"It starts with crippling pain, enough to knock you off your feet. You feel like the fever is burning you from the inside out and it hurts badly enough to make you scream. You'll pass out from the pain, no matter how much interrogation resistance training you've had, because it feels like every bone in your body is reshaping. And then you wake up, only you're not human anymore."

Iruka shook convulsively. "I got bit… i-is that what will happen to me?"

He saw the shadow of a face shake above him. "Not if we can keep your fever from climbing too far and keep you hydrated. But you have to stay awake and fight the fever as much as you can. The fever is what triggers it."

"I'll t-try. There's a stream not far from here. It should be cold."

"Good thought, but that's a last resort. That water's bound to be too cold. Might be too much of a shock to your system."

Iruka managed a half-feral grin. "I'll risk it if I have to. How d-do you know so much about t-the poison?"

"Because I'm the one they tested it on."

Iruka shuddered violently. "But you're human."

"For the moment." Eyes glinted in the dim light trickling in the mouth of the den. "The strength of the poison seal varies by the moon. I think they stole that part of the thing from someone in Wave, because their jutsu are affected by the moon and tides. It's weakest when the moon is dark, but I have enough strength that I can hold my human form when the moon isn't in the sky. Not during the daylight, for some reason, but at night, before moonrise and after the moon has set, I can steal a few minutes or even hours as myself."

Iruka struggled to bring his nebulous thoughts into focus. There was something important he was missing here. "Who are you?" He asked again.

"Not important. We have bigger things to worry about."

But Iruka had ceased to listen. The skin on his forearm felt tight and itchy, like there were tiny insects crawling under the flesh. "Light. I _need_ a light!"

Pale blue light flickered into being and Iruka stared at his arm in horrified fascination. There was something like a bruise blooming on his skin, but it moved freely under a thin layer of tanned skin. Iruka fumbled wildly for a kunai but a strong hand stilled his. "That won't help."

Iruka watched the mark form, feverish and horrified. It took the shape of a crescent with a strange swirling pattern inside the curve of it. The strange pattern reminded him of something…

Firm fingers closed around his wrist. "We have to bring the fever down. Fast."

In the odd blue light, Iruka looked up into a face he'd never seen before, but still knew. "You… No, we don't have time for this, help me to the stream."

Strong hands pulled him up and suddenly he was in the other's arms and they were bounding toward the stream. Iruka heard a startled yip and looked back to see the pack following.

Suddenly, they were by the stream. "It's going to be cold," Iruka was warned.

_Ice!_

Cold didn't _begin_ to cover it. Iruka convulsed in the water, every nerve-end afire with pain. The water was like shards of ice biting into his skin and he struggled weakly against the strong arms supporting him in the water. "Shh… bear it just a little while longer. You'll be fine as soon as we bring the fever down."

Iruka lost track of how long he lay there, suspended in the icy water, his teeth chattering so hard it felt like they might fly loose from his skull. His senses seemed to fade in and out of clarity, because one moment they were still at the stream and the next they were back in the den, his helper deftly stripping soaking clothes away from his shivering skin. Then he was bundled in among the wolves, their thick fur offering him some of the warmth the water had leached away. There was warm skin against his back and arms wrapped around his chest. "C-cold…" Iruka breathed.

The arms tightened around him. "But your fever is broken. The poison can't affect you now."

"I-if I g-get sick again?" Iruka shivered, grateful for the heat radiating from the bare skin at his back.

"The poison breaks down after a couple of weeks. All that's left is this." Fingers that glowed a faint blue with chakra lifted his arm, revealing a faint mark, like a faded tattoo.

"I-is that…?"

"What's left of the seal. It remains, but the power is gone."

Weakly, Iruka turned in the embrace, lifting the hand that still glowed faintly blue with chakra. "I know y-you. You've been listed as MIA for over a year and a half now. W-why didn't you ever come back?"

Mismatched eyes blinked back at him, before the red Sharingan eye slid shut. "Better that I stay that way. I'm fairly useless as the infamous copy-nin now. It takes most of my chakra to hold myself in my human form. I've been living as a wolf for a long time."

Iruka reached up and brushed trembling fingers over the pale lips that so few had seen. "The village needs you. Naruto will need you when he comes back. Tsunade-sama is the best medic-nin in the land. Who is to say she can't cure you?"

The thin lips beneath his fingers quirked and Hatake Kakashi sighed softly. "Still as stubborn as the day we argued over the exam nominations. Do you ever give up?"

Iruka laughed softly, though it was a shaky sound. "Not often." He looked around at the sleeping wolves that surrounded them. "Were… are they people too?"

Kakashi shook his head. "No. They found me when I escaped. I was more then half-starved and nearly out of my mind from what had been done to me. The little brown-masked one found me first and led the others to me. They brought me food and kept me alive. When they smelled the scent of the same poison on you, they wanted to help you too."

Iruka found his eyes drooping, but he was determined to stay awake as long as Kakashi remained in his human form. "I dreamed that I heard them and you talking. Someone wanted to go to the village for help."

If he hadn't been watching carefully, he would have missed the surprise that ghosted over the copy-nin's pale visage. "We discussed it. But Tsunade wouldn't have known enough about the poison to keep you from changing too. And as weak as you were, I don't think you would have survived."

"How did I understand you?"

Kakashi looked perplexed. "I don't know. I never even wondered about how I could understand them. It just seemed natural."

Iruka sighed, fighting to keep his eyes open. "Will you come back to the village with me?"

Gentle fingers brushed over his forehead and closed his eyes gently. "Sleep now and regain your strength. We'll talk more tomorrow night."

When Iruka woke again, the pack was still huddled around him, giving back much-needed warmth, but there was one subtle difference. There was no longer warm skin against his own, but soft fur instead. He twisted his head to look into the single eye of the pack leader. "Kakashi-sensei, is that you? Can you understand me?"

The wolf whined softly and dropped his grizzled head in a nod. Iruka turned and buried his fingers in the soft ruff. "It is you. Sakura and Naruto would be so happy to know you're alive. Tsunade-sama too. She's had people out looking for you." He met the single silver-blue eye. "Will you come back to Konoha with me?"

With a whine, Kakashi nodded just once, before turning his head away.

Satisfied, Iruka drifted back into sleep, his mind still busily working. It was about three days to the village at his best speed, which he was nowhere near able to reach, so figure for four to five days travel, especially considering that Kakashi would have to stop and hunt and Iruka knew that he would need many stops to rest too. He surrendered to sleep, wondering if the wolves would follow them to Konoha…

"_Why do you want me to go back? The village doesn't actually need me."_

_Iruka looked up into Kakashi's eyes, noting they were deadly serious, both the one he had been born with and the slowly spinning Sharingan. "Because we do need you. Naruto needs you to teach him more when he gets back from his training with Jiraiya. He always did look up to you, even if he was constantly complaining about you. Sakura misses you. She has kept a vigil for you more times than I can count. I think it was her stubborn insistence you were alive that convinced Tsunade-sama not to have you declared dead. You belong among us."_

_Kakashi snorted, his bared face twisted with ironic humor. "And she doesn't want the village to seem weak, admitting that the infamous Sharingan Kakashi is dead."_

_Iruka rose to his feet, planting his hands on his hips. "Don't be a fool! Tsunade-sama cares about you too. She's had searchers out as often as she can spare them. She even has the new genin teams keeping an eye out for traces of you." He strode up to Kakashi and stared up into his face. "That's way beyond the need to have you home to prove our strength. We have other strong shinobi!"_

_Kakashi looked into his face and chuckled softly. "Sometimes I forget how fierce you can be. Fine. I'll come home, for all the good it will do me, spending the rest of my life as a wolf."_

It took them six days to reach the gates, because the pack refused to be left behind, and their antics virtually assured that Iruka would have to take frequent breaks to rest. Iruka had to laugh at the look on poor Kotetsu's face as he came out of the forest, a little worse for the wear and surrounded by nine fairly large wolves. He looked like he was about to wet himself as the huge black wolf sniffed him in an overly friendly manner.

An ANBU came to meet Iruka and escort him to Tsunade's office.

Iruka tried not to laugh as the ANBU was thoroughly sniffed by the pack. Because the wolves would not let him get too close to Iruka, they had to walk to the tower. The wolves took it all in stride and cavorted around Iruka and the gray wolf that walked stoically by his side. A little girl from his class called a greeting and was instantly greeted by three of the wolves, whose slobbery affection had her giggling wildly.

Iruka had timed their arrival to a nicety, reaching the tower just after sunset. Tonight was a new moon, which meant that the justu on Kakashi was at its weakest point. Iruka explained to his dumbfounded Hokage what had happened and stood aside as the huge gray wolf transformed back into the jounin. They spent the rest of the night in the tower, being poked and prodded by Tsunade as she tried to figure out the strange combination of poison, jutsu and curse mark that bound Kakashi into the form of a wolf.

Shizune brought tea for them, but wouldn't come any further than the door of the office, looking pointedly at the very bored wolves lounging on every inch of available floor space. Sakura came too and after she had hugged the breath out of Kakashi and, as an afterthought, Iruka; set to helping Tsunade with a will.

Iruka had his blood taken and examined and after a while of watching the two of them work, offered to take the fidgety wolves out for a run. Tsunade waved him off, and Iruka smiled sympathetically as Kakashi looked longingly after them. Iruka led the pack to one of the training grounds to work off their boredom. He henged a handful of leaves into brightly colored balls and sent them rolling around the training grounds. Like puppies, the pack went scrambling after them. Even the brown brindle, the most serious of the pack, was teased into playing.

It was very near dawn when a weary looking Sakura found him, dozing with his back resting against the huge black wolf. She smiled as she led them back to the tower, but didn't answer his increasingly anxious questions. His mood communicated to the pack and they could hardly keep from darting ahead of the two humans.

Tsunade greeted them with a weary half-smile. Behind her, dawn light gleamed through the window, tinting the silver hair of the man behind her pastel shades of rose and pink. Iruka blinked and grinned widely and the pack crowded past him to greet Kakashi.

He turned his attention to Tsuande. "You did it!"

She raised a weary hand. "It's not perfect, and I can't undo it completely, but the blood sample we took from you gave me the clue how to unravel it."

"But…?"

Tsunade sighed. "The damned mark won't go away. And when it's at its strongest, he'll change back into the wolf. Three nights, when the full moon holds sway over the skies, Kakashi will remain a wolf."

But to Iruka's surprise, Kakashi laughed softly, kneeling among the pack that had accepted him as their own. "I don't care." He said bluntly. "I'm human again, and if the downside is that I have to spend a few nights a month as a wolf, I can live with that."

Tsunade smiled, though it was weary. "I'm happy you are back, brat." She sat down and steepled her fingers. "There is one small problem. Because of your status, all of your things were put into storage and your apartment rented out. It will be at least a couple of days before we can find a place for you."

Kakashi looked nonplussed.

"You can stay with me until then, Kakashi-sensei." Iruka spoke up. "You shared your home with me, it's only fair I return the favor."

"Well, that's one less worry for the night. What about your friends?" Tsunade asked.

Kakashi rested his hand on the head of the smallest. "I'll send them back out into the forest for the night."

The pack had other ideas, even when Kakashi took them to the gate and pointed them towards the forest. They simply sat at his feet, grinning up at him, until Iruka could contain his laughter no longer. "It'll be a tight fit, but they can come too." He chortled.

Kakashi disgruntled stare was enough to send him off into another gale of laughter.

He led the way back to his modest apartment, trailed by a discontented copy-nin and a pack of wolves.

It was a tight fit, eight wolves sprawled around the small, spartan apartment, but Iruka thought they still fit just fine. He grinned at Kakashi's unqualified appreciation of the quick meal he managed to put together from frozen vegetables and chicken. The copy-nin's wide grin as he bit into the crisp snap-peas was without reservation. "It's nice to eat something that isn't bloody raw." He said when he noticed Iruka's eyes on him.

Iruka laughed and added more to Kakashi's plate. He still ached but Tsunade had been kind enough to fix the worst of his hurts. He wanted nothing so much as a painkiller, a bath and bed… in that order.

He rose as Kakashi continued eating. "I'm going to heat the bath. I have a spare futon, would you like to sleep out here with the pack or in the bedroom?"

Kakashi looked at the wolves sprawled carelessly around the chuunin's tidy apartment. "In the bedroom. Uh, you do realize they're not housebroken, right?"

Iruka grinned. "That's okay. You're cleaning up any messes they make."

Chuckling, he left to run the bath, snagging a handful of painkillers along the way.

Iruka woke with a start, unsure what had woken him… until he felt the warmth against his back and the soft breath in his hair. Kakashi had moved from his futon into Iruka's and was pressed up against his spine. It wasn't sexual, but out of a need for touch… for comfort, Iruka realized. The wolves were social animals, always touching, and Kakashi had lived with them for more than a year.

He sighed and settled down again, feeling Kakashi relax more against him. It was only for the night. And the next one, perhaps.

When he woke again, Kakashi had taken the wolves out, presumably to hunt for their breakfast. The spare futon was folded neatly and if the pack had left any messes, Kakashi had already cleaned them up.

Sighing , Iruka dressed and left a note on the door. He had to go out and pick up some fresh supplies. And maybe some meat for the pack. The vegetables last night hadn't tempted them, but the bits of chicken had. They had shamelessly begged for treats, having developed a taste for cooked meats from Iruka cooking his meals.

When he got back, Kakashi and the pack were crowded into the main room. Kakashi had found a children's movie that featured talking dogs (probably left from the last time Iruka had babysat) and had put it on. Amazingly enough, the pack seemed engrossed by it, staring at the screen in spellbound wonder. Iruka shook his head, and stepping carefully to avoid crushing paws or tails, carried his purchases to the kitchen.

He made tea and brought a cup to the jounin, having to step very carefully.

"What are you going to do about them?" He asked, settling down on the couch next to Kakashi. "There's no way a whole pack of wolves will go unnoticed."

Kakashi shrugged, his single blue eye fixed on the screen, where a pug was talking to a human child. "I'll have to figure something out. Maybe find a bigger place."

Iruka shrugged, moving his foot out of the way of the ash-blonde wolf's wagging tail. "If only they didn't take up quite so much room. Maybe you could pass them off as dogs."

Kakashi snorted. "Any idiot can see that they're no kind of dogs."

The brown brindle looked up at them and offered a lupine grin. Suddenly, where he had sat was a small pug, just like the one in the movie. Iruka blinked and when he opened his eyes, the room was filled with dogs of varying sizes and breeds.

Kakashi's jaw dropped and his teacup fell out of frozen fingers. "Did you know they could do that?" He plaintively asked Iruka, who shook his head. "How come I never knew they could do that?"

The small brown pug spoke in a deep voice that belied his tiny size. "Because you never asked."


End file.
